Question and Answer Form – Drax Group Response
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Question and answer form – Drax Group Response When responding, please provide answers that are as specific and evidence-based as possible, providing data and references to the extent possible. Please limit your answers to 400 words per question and provide supporting evidence (e.g. academic literature, market assessments, policy reports, etc.) along with your responses. A. Climate science and international circumstances Question 1: The climate science considered in the CCC’s 2019 Net Zero report, based on the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, will form the basis of this advice. What additional evidence on climate science, aside from the most recent IPCC Special Reports on Land and the Oceans and Cryosphere, should the CCC consider in setting the level of the sixth carbon budget? Not Answered Question 2: How relevant are estimates of the remaining global cumulative CO₂ budgets (consistent with the Paris Agreement long-term temperature goal) for constraining UK cumulative emissions on the pathway to reaching net-zero GHGs by 2050? ANSWER: Estimates of the remaining global cumulative CO2 budgets are certainly important for the UK in setting a pathway to reaching net-zero GHGs. These budgets will have a direct correlation to a UK target and, if it believed that these global CO2 budgets will be exceeded, could mean that developed countries with a strong focus on sustainability and decarbonisation like the UK could begin to set one or more of the following: More stringent targets with earlier dates for net-zero; Sharper emissions reduction trajectories as we approach a net-zero target; Targets which are net negative by 2050. Question 3: How should emerging updated international commitments to reduce emissions by 2030 impact on the level of the sixth carbon budget for the UK? Are there other actions the UK should be taking alongside setting the sixth carbon budget, and taking the actions necessary to meet it, to support the global effort to implement the Paris Agreement? ANSWER: The Sixth Carbon Budget and Welsh emissions targets - Call for Evidence Question 3: How should emerging updated international commitments to reduce emissions by 2030 impact on the level of the sixth carbon budget for the UK? Are there other actions the UK should be taking alongside setting the sixth carbon budget, and taking the actions necessary to meet it, to support the global effort to implement the Paris Agreement? There are a number of actions which can be taken alongside the setting of the sixth carbon budget to support the global effort to implement the Paris Agreement. The most important of these is the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and the development of an international emissions trading scheme. Such a scheme should ensure that there is a global marketplace for negative emissions which would be an enabling action for long term climate ambitions. In addition, to providing climate leadership to the rest of the world, the UK has the opportunity to become a world leader in exporting technologies required to meet a net-zero target such as CCUS, BECCS, and hydrogen. These technologies are expected to play a key role in emissions reductions not just in the UK, but globally according to IPCC reports. Finally, the UK has an opportunity to become a CCUS CO2 storage hub due to the ample amount of CO2 storage based in UK waters. A report from the Energy Technologies Institute highlighted that UK stores could store in excess of 78,000 MtCO which provides the UK with the opportunity to store the CO2 produced by European countries for a number of decades1. Question 4: What is the international signalling value of a revised and strengthened UK NDC (for the period around 2030) as part of a package of action which includes setting the level of the sixth carbon budget? ANSWER: More aggressive carbon reduction strategies set by the UK can provide a signal for other countries to follow the same course of action. Since being the first major economy to set a net-zero target into law the UK has provided a model for other countries to follow or to try and beat. For example, France has recently set a similar net-zero target by 2050 into law, and Finland is expected to set a target of net-zero by 2035 in the coming months2. Revising and strengthening the UK NDC for the period around 2030 would provide a similar signal to countries around the world, and provides a target for these countries to hit and exceed. B. The path to the 2050 target Question 5: How big a role can consumer, individual or household behaviour play in delivering emissions reductions? How can this be credibly assessed and incentivised? Not Answered The Sixth Carbon Budget and Welsh emissions targets - Call for Evidence Question 6: What are the most important uncertainties that policy needs to take into account in thinking about achieving Net Zero? How can government develop a strategy that helps to retain robustness to those uncertainties, for example low-regrets options and approaches that maintain optionality? ANSWER: One of the biggest uncertainties that policy will need to consider regarding a net-zero target is the role of behavioural change in driving decarbonisation. Whilst it is clear that behaviour change will be required in order to hit this target, some behaviour change is likely to prove easier to influence than others. For example, the switch to EV’s could be a fairly simple transition but eating less meat or flying less could prove to be difficult and unpopular to implement. To counter this risk, we believe that optionality in hitting a net-zero target will be necessary. One of the primary methods of providing optionality is through Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) technologies. Whilst these technologies shouldn’t be seen as a way of avoiding cheaper or easier decarbonisation measures the do provide a certain amount of flexibility in hitting a net-zero target through their ability to provide negative emissions. Question 7: The fourth and fifth carbon budgets (covering the periods of 2023-27 and 2028-32 respectively) have been set on the basis of the previous long-term target (at least 80% reduction in GHGs by 2050, relative to 1990 levels). Should the CCC revisit the level of these budgets in light of the net-zero target? ANSWER: Drax supports the revisiting of the level of fourth and fifth carbon budgets in light of the net- zero target. Whilst the fourth budget may be only able to accommodate minimal reductions in the level of the budget due to the short timescales in which the budget will commence, the fifth carbon budget is less time constrained and could be significantly revised following the setting of a net-zero target. When revising the level of the fourth and fifth carbon budgets the CCC should take into account several factors including: A trajectory which is consistent with meeting a net-zero target by 2050. The significant cost reductions we have seen in a number of decarbonisation technologies such as offshore wind and electric vehicles which could mean that these technologies are deployed quicker, or at greater scale, than anticipated. The deployment of Greenhouse Gas Removal technologies in the 2020s to enable learning by doing, innovation and cost reduction ahead of a scale-up in the 2030s. The increased reliance of the national electricity transmission system on biomass and gas to provide system stability services such as inertia, frequency response and voltage control. The setting of net-zero GHG emissions target by 2050 has created a situation where all emitters in the economy will now have to assess mechanisms to enable them to decarbonise. Such an approach has meant that emitters now have “nowhere to hide” under a net-zero target. By revising the fourth and fifth carbon budgets the CCC could raise the urgency in these sectors to decarbonise. The Sixth Carbon Budget and Welsh emissions targets - Call for Evidence Question 7: The fourth and fifth carbon budgets (covering the periods of 2023-27 and 2028-32 respectively) have been set on the basis of the previous long-term target (at least 80% reduction in GHGs by 2050, relative to 1990 levels). Should the CCC revisit the level of these budgets in light of the net-zero target? Question 8: What evidence do you have of the co-benefits of acting on climate change compatible with achieving Net Zero by 2050? What do these co-benefits mean for which emissions abatement should be prioritised and why? ANSWER: As part of our work on the Zero Carbon Humber project in conjunction with Equinor and National Grid Ventures we have commissioned analysis by Element Energy that considers the co-benefits of decarbonising the Humber region through the deployment of CCUS and hydrogen infrastructure3. Some of the key findings were as follows: Protect up to 55,000 jobs in manufacturing and engineering sectors in the region. Avoid £2.9 billion per year in carbon taxes by 2040 for emitters in the region. Save £148 million in avoided public health costs between 2040 and 2050 as a result of higher air quality. Boost the economy of a region which has struggled as a result of deindustrialisation. Provide a number of additional jobs during the construction and operational phases. The Humber is just one of several proposed CCUS industrial clusters and many of the findings of our report can also be applied to these regions, albeit at a smaller scale. Other co-benefits of decarbonisation are particularly well highlighted through sector deals struck between industry and the government. Two major sector deals relating to decarbonisation can be found in the Nuclear and Offshore Wind sector deals with key commitments including at least 60% of the offshore wind supply chain provided by UK content and at least 40% female participation in the nuclear sector4.